With their first season now behind them, the Cosumnes River College women’s swim team accomplished a lot in their inaugural year.

Being a new team to the campus, there were understandably some growing pains. Nevertheless, the women did not let it stop them.

“A lot of the girls were either new to swimming or hadn’t swam for a period of time, so there was a huge learning curve from the beginning of the season to the end,” said CRC’s swimming head coach Elizabeth Abrams.

Abrams said that the small size of the team, which was only five swimmers, ended up being very beneficial for them in the long run.

“We had a really small group of girls, but the upside to having a small team was that the girls got a lot of individualized attention and training,” Abrams said. “We were able to focus on the girls individually and that also created a great team experience.”

Swimmers said that having a small team allowed them to make strong friendships.

“It was a great season because we were able to bond so much and I know I made friends to last me a lifetime,” said freshman swimmer Natasha Supan in an email interview.

The women received seventh place at the Big 8 Conference this season.

“Even being so small we were strong enough as a team not to be last like everyone expected,” said freshman Megan Lapomardo in an email interview. “We are the lady hawks and we are here to make our claim in the pool.”

With what they describe as a good experience under their wings, the women are ready to return to the pool with additional members next season.

“I will be returning next season to continue to get better and pick up where I left off at,” Lapomardo said. “I’m also looking forward to meeting the new coming girls and welcoming them to our amazing lady Hawks swim team.”

Some of the ways the coaches are recruiting are by informing the local high school swim teams about the new swimming program at CRC.

“Coach Sieger and myself have been going out to a lot of the local high schools in the area and visiting their teams, and just letting them know that we have a program,” Abrams said. “In addition to that, just students on campus are inquiring.”

And as far as future plans go, coach Abrams said that she is hoping to host games at the CRC pool with a bigger team next season.

“Small steps for big long-term goals is kind of where we’re at right now,” Abrams said. “We plan to host a few home meets next season which will be a next step in growing our program and, in addition to that, just having a larger team with the hopes of being more competitive as a whole.”